


On Being a Superhero

by flitterflutterfly



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-12
Updated: 2013-02-12
Packaged: 2017-11-29 02:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/681444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flitterflutterfly/pseuds/flitterflutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Rodney McKay is rescued by a superhero and falls in love. With a cup of coffee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Being a Superhero

**Author's Note:**

> For the stargateland challenge: Heroes. Includes the words: dare, sunset, coffee, and travel.

It was a dare that had Rodney on the roof of the tallest building in the Florida-based city of Atlantis. He gulped slightly as he looked down at the impressive drop to the parking lot below, and then back over at the one who’d dared him.

Kavanagh gave him a raised eyebrow and a shooing motion.

“Are you sure about this?” Rodney asked as he once again checked the parachute before deciding it would hold him and slipping it onto his back.

“Absolutely,” Kavanagh told him. “Come on McKay, or are you too chicken?”

Rodney scowled and stepped up to the ledge, he took a steading breath as his head swam. “I’m not sure-” he began.

“Too late,” Kavanagh said, right behind him. Too close. “Goodbye,  _Dr. McKay_.”

There was a tearing sound, as if something had ripped from the pack on Rodney’s back, and then he was falling.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-” Rodney screamed, high-pitched and terrified. “Oh god oh god oh god I’m gonna die.”

The ground was rushing closer and Rodney closed his eyes, his mind flashing to Jeannie and his parents and his cat, his poor cat, and the proof he’d left unfinished on his desk that he’d been sure would finally get him the Nobel Prize.

The ground hit soft against his chest and Rodney let out a  _whoof_  of breath.

He opened his eyes, hesitant, and looked down to see that it wasn’t the ground he’d hit, but a black-clothed arm. His eyes traced the arm up to the body it was attached to, seeing a cape flapping over the shoulders, and then towards the face.

A black mask covered around caramel-green eyes, only to make way for tanned skin around frowning lips and a slender, but strong chin. The sunset, a dramatic backdrop, cast the man into shadows and stole Rodney’s breath for a brief moment.

“Are you stupid?” the masked hero asked, breaking that moment.

“No I am not!” Rodney said, outrage pulling him out of his shock. “I have two PhDs, I’ll have you know!”

“You jumped off a building with a defective parachute,” the hero drawled. “I’d say that’s pretty stupid, doctorate or not.”

“I didn’t… it wasn’t,” Rodney gaped. Weren’t heroes supposed to be nice to victims? “Kavanagh pushed me!”

“Kavanagh?” the hero asked. He moved and then suddenly they were flying back through the air toward the rooftop. Rodney twisted in the strong grip the man had on him so that he could see, and berate, the scientist.

Kavanagh wasn’t there however. Instead, the sickly green and purple uniform of one of Atlantis’ supervillains, the Wraith, showed itself.

“I can’t believe it,” Rodney gaped. “Really, just what the hell did you bribe Kavanagh with so that he’d work for you?”

The Wraith sneered at him, but ignored his question to turn its eyes on the hero who was still holding Rodney. “Flyboy,” it greeted. “One would think you would not care about the life of a simple physicist.”

“Okay, what?” Rodney turned to the hero incredulously. “Flyboy? Really, that’s the best you can come up with. That’s a stupid name! And you,” he turned back to the Wraith, “I am not a  _simple physicist_ , I am the lead scientist in the field of astrophysics and aerospace engineering. I am very much worth saving.”

“Dr. McKay,” Flyboy, really?, interrupted. “I wouldn’t provoke-”

The Wraith laughed. “Provoke me?”

Flyboy’s mouth tightened. “I’d shoot you right now, you sick f-”

“Ah, but you cannot,” the Wraith laughed. “Not whilst holding a civilian. I am right in front of you and you cannot even touch me.”

Flyboy hovered, eyes darker now than they’d been earlier. Rodney stayed silent, now uncertain. “No,” Flyboy admitted after a minute, “but they can.”

Rodney looked up just in time to see two more masked heroes join the fray. There was the Runner, a feral vigilante turned superhero, and the beautiful female fighter, Gifted Warrior.

Flyboy watched them fight for a moment, and then turned away, flying still with Rodney in his arms. Rodney frowned. “Hey, why are we leaving?”

“They can take care of themselves,” Flyboy said. “And we need to get you to safety, McKay.”

“Safety?” Rodney repeated.

“Yeah,” Flyboy said, adjusting his grip on Rodney’s torso, pulling him a little flusher to his body as he swerved around a skyscraper. “We’ve heard rumors that the Wraith has taken up working with the Commander, of the villainous Genii team, to either capture or kill you.”

“What?” Rodney gaped. “Me, but… why would they? I mean I know why they would, I am brilliant, but… I didn’t-”

“Don’t worry, McKay,” Flyboy drawled. “You’ll be safe with us.”

“Who is  _us_?” Rodney asked, stunned.

“The Atlanteans,” Flyboy grinned.

Twenty minutes later, by which Rodney had come to terms with the fact that he was now a dead man, and had also decided that flying was by far the coolest way to travel, they arrived at the Atlantean base of operations.

Right smack in the center of Atlantis.

“This is hardly great security for a superhero base,” Rodney muttered as he tapped into the computer system of the headquarters.

“What are you doing?” another hero, the one who’d patted Flyboy on the back and said he’d watch over Rodney, asked.

“Bolstering our systems, apparently,” Flyboy came back, no longer in his ridiculous, and by that Rodney meant ridiculously attractive, uniform.

Rodney looked up, mouth caught open as he stared now at the full face of the hero who’d saved his life. “Wait, you’re John Sheppard!” he exclaimed. “Son of Patrick Sheppard, of Sheppard Industries, right?”

Sheppard nodded tightly and then turned to the person behind him. “Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth, apparently, stepped into the room. She gave Rodney a once over and then nodded. “Welcome to the team, Rodney.”

“Welcome to the…” Rodney blinked. “I’m no superhero.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Elizabeth smiled, “but right now you need our help and we might even need yours,” she nodded to the computer. “In the past several months, we’ve had fifteen breaches in our security. We think it maybe the work of a Dr. Kavanagh.”

“I’m not sure,” Rodney began. There were so many variables to take into account and while he definitely wanted to get back at Kavanagh for pushing him off the roof, he couldn’t just drop his life like that.

Just then, Sheppard set a full mug of coffee at his side. Rodney took it instinctually, sipping it.

“Oh god,” Rodney moaned. “This is the best coffee I’ve ever had.”

And it was, creamy and dark and bitter and sweet. It sent tingles down Rodney’s spine, his fingers shivering against the side of the mug in bliss. “Oh god,” he repeated again, eyes closing from the pure wonder of the coffee. “This is… this is too good to be true. How is this so good? This is amazing, this is… I love this.”

“We know,” Sheppard leaned against the desk, smiling in a way that crinkled the sides of his eyes. “So?”

Rodney took another sip, and then a healthy gulp. “Keep the coffee coming,” he said, snapping his fingers, “and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Elizabeth shook her head, motioning something towards the other hero. They left, leaving Sheppard and Rodney and the orgasmic cup of coffee.

There was several moments of silence, in which Rodney thought everything over a bit more and then decided that there were worse turns his life could have taken. Turns that wouldn’t have had the coffee besides him.

“I always wanted to be a superhero,” Rodney said as he fixed another default firewall in the system.

“You’re not a superhero,” Sheppard said. “Not yet at least. You have to earn that title.”

Rodney paused, his fingers freezing on the keyboard. “Like you did?”

“Yeah,” Sheppard leaned forward and tapped something, finishing up the code Rodney had just started. He leaned away again, clapping Rodney on the shoulder. “Who knows, you might just have what it takes.”

Rodney looked up, taking in those eyes that were the same color as the coffee in the mug. He couldn’t be sure that he did, but, “I can at least try.”

“That’s the spirit,” Sheppard said. “Refill?”

“Hell yes,” Rodney held out the mug. Sheppard laughed.


End file.
